Racing!

The racing schedule for the back half of my season has been finalized, and it will be posted on my site soon. Until it is uploaded here is the breakdown:

September 6th AXS Adventure Race Vail
September 14th Harvest Moon Half Ironman
September 21st Animas Mountain Mug Run 6.6 Mile Trail Run
October 5th Longhorn Ironman 70.3
October 26th Soma Half Ironman
November 23rd Ironman Arizona

I may add a local running race or two just to keep things sharp, and I will be participating in some of the Durango Wheel Club Championship events, but this should be just the right amount of race intensity stimulus I need to be ready for my Ironman in November. My training is right on target at the moment, and I'm feeling more fit and focused than ever before. The most important thing from here on out will be to really nail my key workouts each week and avoid injury. It's going to take a little creative training when the daylight really starts to fade this fall, but I'm confident that my legs will be ready for the test. I'll report on the Adventure race in Vail this weekend upon completion.

Website Update

Make sure to check the latest version of my website at www.benhoffmanracing.com
The newest updates include a gallery (more pics coming soon), and a completely redesigned layout with all-new sections. The most recent results, photos, and race schedule will be added shortly. Input is welcome.

Single-Minded Warrior

"Out on the accidental frontiers of human possibility, the best athletes are produced by a perfect storm of circumstance: rare natural talents; state-of-the-art training; and a deep wash in the murk of psychology, where, perhaps most mysterious of all, ferocious ambition, discipline and capacity for self-sacrifice reside."


From the New York Times article "Out There" by Mark Levine August 3rd, 2008

Becoming an elite endurance athlete is a bit like reverting to caveman status, being a believer, and hence, a warrior. To me this is what life is all about: to strip away the trivialities of day-to-day living and get right down to the essentials. Being successful is being competitive, and being competitive means that I put my training before most everything else. It's taken me some time to become comfortable with that idea, as I attempted to strike the socially defined "balance" in my life, seeking activities that stimulated my artistic creativity, mechanical aptitude, and other pursuits designed to make me a well-rounded, culturally aware, renaissance man. It's not to say that I have abandoned those pursuits entirely, but instead that I have decided that the real knowledge of one's self is in the deepest and rawest commitment to one thing. And that I believe the rewards of pushing myself and pursuing this goal to know what I am truly capable of far outweigh the fantasy of other possibilities if I were to abandon this quest. A friend, David Roy and I have spent countless hours on the running trails of Durango discussing the benefits of what he has coined being a "single-minded warrior." The common myth is that being so involved with only one thing leads to stagnation and inhibits growth, but I believe that intense specialization and devotion promotes the greatest advancements and evolution within the self. To let distracting elements fall away is the key to flourishing. One of the more inspiring quotes I have read from an athlete who demonstrated some of the fiercest commitment to these ideals comes from Greco-Roman wrestler Alexander Karelin, a.k.a. "The Experiment." He offered this insight when he was explaining why people don't understand how he could be so much more skilled at his sport than his rivals without being some kind of scientific experiment, juiced to the gills: "I train every day of my life as they have never trained a day in theirs." So, next time you are wondering whether somebody else is logging the training miles and getting up early enough to swim before work, do yourself a favor and assume they are.

Sunday 20

This past weekend was a serious motivator for the back half of the racing season. Even though I have just begun to ramp the training back to an acceptable level after my injury, I was feeling good on my long run and decided to make the workout a real test of my fitness and the strength of my knee. A group of runners have been organizing for long runs at high altitude recently, so I joined the Sunday morning effort and drove up Hermosa Park above the Purgatory ski resort for the run. The run begins at 9,900 ft. and immediately climbs to almost 10,500 ft., where it contours at the base of several big peaks in the San Juan range. I wasn't feeling 100% after racing a sprint triathlon in town Saturday (1st, 53:56) and following it up with almost 3 hrs. of solid riding with some friends, but after about 25 minutes I settled into a more comfortable rhythm and began to enjoy the scenery up high. I was expecting to suffer even more than usual at that altitude, but at mile 8 when the group decided to flip it and head back to the cars, training partner Jesse Vondracek and I opted for a bit more. Initially we planned on going out to 9 miles and turning back, but we talked each other into the full 10. Because the last 3 miles coming back were almost entirely downhill, we also decided that we would up the tempo at the end and try to lock in some speed at the critical time when the legs were the most fatigued. I started to suffer a little bit at mile 14, but stayed focused on my form and efficiency until we crested the rise before the long downhill. I was able to click off 6:15's for the last 3 miles and held an overall average of 7:41's for the 20 miles. Most importantly, my knee held up just fine and is ready for the rest of the requisite Ironman training. I'll be heading to Gateway, Colorado this weekend for some more racing with the Chocolate Factory cycling team, with a 40k time trial on Friday, 162k road race on Saturday, and a 142k road race on Sunday. Happy training.

Tuesday Night Worlds

Last night was easily the hardest ride I've done outside of racing this summer. Every tuesday night, spring through fall in Durango, several group rides leave for what essentially evolves into a road race scenario. Last night saw a solid turnout of local cycling pros, including Jittery Joe's Ben Kneller and Matt Shriver, BMC's Brent Bookwalter, HealthNet's Corey Collier, the ageless Ned Overend, and several other top amateurs from the local area. The funny thing is that we were still short a few names, including Kelly Benefits rider Dan Bowman, Toyota United's Chris Wherry, GT's Todd Wells, and a number of other cyclists that make this mountain town one of the west's cycling meccas. I knew it was going to be a challenging ride with all the heavy-hitters present, but also because the route involved a considerable amount of climbing, and my legs were already a bit tired from the transition back to training and racing this past weekend in Salida. The ride began on a 10 mile climb up to Hesperus, where I was shelled off the back about halfway up after riding tempo for a while on the front. I rejoined the group at the top for the flatter section, when after continuously ramping up the speed with Corey on the front, he stepped it up another notch, Ben Kneller attacked on a roller, and I was off again. I usually don't have too much trouble staying with the group on rides like this, but these guys were absolutely on mission to make the entire ride a sufferfest, and we were holding 55+k/h for most of the flat and rolling sections. After joining the group for a second time, we hit another climb on a quality dirt road and made our second loop over the rollers near Breen. This time I was able to hold on and set good pace at the front, as we whittled the group down to 4 for the last descent into town. I didn't make much of an effort for the town sign sprint, but I was happy to survive the ride and lock some excellent mileage and effort into my legs. Hopefully next go around I'll be able to hang a little longer on the climbs before the elite climbers take command.

Lake Stevens 70.3

It's an appropriate time to begin this update section as I am coming off a knee injury that necessitated almost two weeks of rest. After a bike crash 3 weeks ago, I bruised my patella and it led to some tracking issues. Thinking I would just shut down the training before my race in Lake Stevens and be fine, I headed to Seattle to visit friends and hoped for the best. My race day performance was less than stellar. A non-wetsuit swim which was a touch long left me nearly 3 minutes in arrears, and the knee was hurting throughout the bike, so I never found my usual rythym. I came off the bike in 5th place and knew that if I could hold my spot it was worth $1250, so I just settled into a decent tempo run. When I reached mile 4, the pain had subsided as my knee went numb, and I was able to pick it up for the remaining miles. Heading out to the last turnaround, I knew I wouldn't be catching 4th place Tim Marr, and he gave me a boost saying "don't get caught." I stayed steady through the final miles and held off 6th place by about 2 minutes. I didn't have a great race, and it was frustrating to feel restricted on the bike when I normally rely on it as my strength, but I was happy to win some money and see some good friends in Seattle. Additionally, my coach Elliot Bassett (http://www.mountainendurance.com) and I had agreed on a good rest block after Lake Stevens, so I took some good down time here in Colorado. Now I'm back to training at full-tilt in Durango, with plenty of swims, rides, and runs to get my fitness back to a high level. I was originally planning on a trip to Boulder for the 5430 Long Course triathlon on August 10th, but I won't have the proper running fitness to really attack the course like I want to, so I'm opting for a good training block which includes a cycling race in Gateway, Colorado, with my team (see the website at http://rmcfcycling.wordpress.com/). I'm actually looking forward to some quality training again with fewer races, as the first half of the year was pretty hectic between triathlons and bike racing. I do have a few races planned for the second half of the season, including the Longhorn 70.3 in Austin, TX, and the Harvest Moon Half, but I'm leaving it open enough to provide ample time for Ironman training. There is a small local sprint triathlon this weekend in Durango, so I'll be using that for some top-end speed and a chance to race against some of my training friends here in town. Until then, more quality training awaits...